Currently, the maricultured Porphyra, commonly known as Nori, and other types of seaweeds, are cultivated in the open sea, in a habitat that is suitable to changing climatic conditions in an uncontrolled manner and gathered manually along the coasts of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. The algae are grown on nets covering approximately 70,000 hectares of the sea. Approximately 300,000 workers participate in the cultivation and gathering of Porphyra. This labor-intensive traditional cultivation system has several drawbacks and yet it has been the only system available for commercial cultivation of Nori. Moreover, the Nori crop grown by this cultivation system is exposed to seawater pollution, to climatic fluctuations and environmental conditions that control its quality and quantity of yield.
Because of its high protein and vitamin content, Nori is considered to be a valuable nutritional product and its consumption has been increasing progressively in recent years. For example, the market for Nori is large with total sales of seaweed products exceeding six billion dollars, and the market for Nori sheets in the US alone is estimated to be worth fifty million dollars annually. Once manually gathered, the Nori is dried into sheets and world-wide production of Porphyra totals about fourteen billion Nori sheets. Yet, currently, large-scale seaweed mariculture is carried out Mainly in Asia because the demand for seaweed products was traditionally high in Asia. Eleven countries produce seaweed products, for example, Japan, Korea, China, Phillipines, Indonesia, Chile, Taiwan, Vietnam, Russia, United States and Italy. Of these countries, only Japan, Korea and China produce Porphyra, and therefore, these countries are the exclusive suppliers for the US and European markets.
Other types of seaweeds produced in the ten countries listed above include Laminaria, Undaria, Eucheuma, and Gracilaria. The US and European markets are supplied with unsophisticated Nori products with minimal differentiation, that is, US and Europe receive the low grade and cheap Nori. The high-end, premium Nori products are mainly reserved for the consumption in Japan. In 1997, about 350,000 wet tons of Nori were produced in Japan with a retail value of one billion dollars. There are approximately seventy species of Porphyra and about thirty-three species occur in Japan. Nori cultivation is a well developed industry in Japan, where improvements have been made in techniques for controlled culturing of the conchocelis stage in shells and for artificial seeding of spores produced by the conchocelis onto cultivation nets which can be stored until placed in the open sea environment.
Genetic improvement of cultured species to maximize the yield of Nori and to develop cost-effective cultivation programs was restricted to classical breeding methods such as strain selection. Mitsua, O. et al., JP 11113529, Apr. 27, 1999.
Prior art describes methods for producing wall-less cells or protoplasts from Nori and protoplast fusion techniques used to produce new hybrid, polyploid and aneuploid genomes possessing combinations of genetic material found in the respective parental species. The new strains produced have altered chromosomal composition and are grown in the open sea. They show modifications in growth, pigment or metabolite composition. Cheney D. et. A., WO/99/29160, published Jun. 17, 1999. The main disadvantage of this approach is that new strains have to be developed, and even then there is a geographical constraint because, an open sea environment is required to cultivate the various seaweeds.
The technology of the present invention overcomes the above disadvantages and takes a unique approach to improving the quality and quantity of Nori and other seaweed products by providing specialized technology, systems and methods for cultivation of the various seaweeds, not in the natural ocean habitat, but inside land-based ponds that provide a stable, fully controlled habit having optimal cultivation conditions. These land-based seawater ponds may be installed in any part of the world, and preferably near a coastal region having an abundance of marine algae and suitable climatic and water temperatures, and at a site close to the processing and manufacturing plant location. The economic benefit of this cultivation technology is the reduced cost, as well as controlling the quality and yield of Nori and other seaweed products produced by changing the nutrient supply to the growing algae by altering the ingredient present in the seawater in the ponds rather than altering the genetic traits of the original species, although the technology can be applied to genetically altered or genetically engineered species as well.
Prior art describes a variety of pharmaceutical or medicinal compositions that were extracted from or derived by chemical process from marine algae, and showing useful effects.
For example, Yvin J. C. et al., describe compositions that have effects in modulating apoptosis dysfunction, WO/99/39718, Aug. 12, 1999.
Winget, R. R., describes compositions that have anti-inflammatory actions, WO/94/24984, Nov. 10, 1994.
Soma, G. et al., describe compositions that exhibit anti-herpes activity, EP 0462 020 A2, Dec. 18, 1991.
Boratyn, D. C., describes sunscreen compositions derived from naturally occurring plants and marine algae, U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,329, Oct. 24, 2000 and Huner N. et al., WO/0024369, May 4, 2000.
Kiriyama S described compositions derived from marine algae that are useful for treatment of hyperglyceridemia, U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,481, Feb. 18, 1992.
Prior art describes methods for producing wall-less cells or protoplasts from Nori and protoplast fusion techniques used to produce new hybrid, polyploid and aneuploid genomes possessing combinations of genetic material found in the respective parental species. The new strains produced have altered chromosomal composition and are grown in the open sea. They show modifications in growth, pigment or metabolite composition. Cheney D. et. A., WO/99/29160, published Jun. 17, 1999. The main disadvantage of this approach is that new strains have to be developed, and even then there is a geographical constraint because, an open sea environment is required to cultivate the various seaweeds.
The present invention overcomes the above disadvantages. It takes a unique approach to improving the quality and quantity of Nori and other seaweed products produced by providing specialized technology comprising of land-based seawater ponds that can be installed in any part of the world. The invention provides systems and methods for cultivation of the various seaweed species, not in the natural ocean habit, but inside land-based ponds that provide a stable, fully controlled habitat having optimal cultivation conditions. These land-based seawater ponds may be installed in any part of the world and preferably a coastal region having an abundance of marine algae species and suitable climatic and water temperatures. The ambient environmental conditions inside the land-based seawater ponds can be controlled so that the cultivation period may be all year round instead of relying on climatic conditions. The nutrient content of the seawater bonds can be formulated to design the composition and nutrient content of the seaweed cultivated in the land-based seawater ponds of the invention. The economic benefit of this cultivation technology is the reduced cost, as well as controlling the quality and yield of Nori and other seaweed products. The invention allows for growing seaweeds all year round by dividing the growth cycle into different stages of growth, by changing the environmental conditions for each stage to achieve maximum growth, and by changing the nutrient supply to the growing algae by altering the seawater in the ponds rather than altering the genetic traits of the original species. The technology is also applicable to genetically altered or genetically engineered species as well.